Assistance needed in convincing parent

Graduate School Law School
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<p>I recently declared my intention to pursue law instead of medicine–I have no passion for it-- recently to my mother. She is not happy at all. In her opinion, medicine is more highly respected and offers more job security. She does not understand that I refuse to invest that much time–10 to 12 years of medical training–into something I have no passion for. </p>

<p>Consequently, she is now proving to be quite annoying. Not only is she opposed to law school, she is now trying to dictate what major I pursue. I wish to pursue Public Policy Studies, but I know she expects me to earn a degree in the sciences. I can do the sciences, but I have no passion for them. She believes I am being lazy. Now she is curious as to what fields in law are growing (probably in attempt to discourage me, seeing as I am not 100% about what fields are growing). I need to silence her once and for all with facts in order to avoid another blow-out argument.</p>

<p>I am asking assistance on gathering info on:</p>

<li><p>Growing Fields in Law (Hopefully website links. So I can print the information)</p></li>
<li><p>Info on Public Policy applications, which will continue to be viable, in society.</p></li>
<li><p>Overall, just positive reasons why to pursue law.</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>Hey!</p>

<p>Thank you for reaching out to seek help; you should definitely NOT pursue something you are not interested in! While I don't know the answers to your questions I just wanted to support your decision, and commend you for taking a stand -although I can only imagine how tough this is for you.</p>

<p>I think a great person to talk to would be Dr Sedrish, as he is an MD and his D is Law student -at Harvard, or Michigan? LOL.</p>

<p>Sorry for this empty reply -if you will-, but...Best of Luck!:D</p>

<p>WF</p>

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<p>Don't major in public policy studies. If you do, take a second major. It won't help you get into law school, it won't help you in law school, and, if you decide to not do law school (hey, it's at least 4 years away), you can't do much else with it.</p>

<p>Intellectual property law is growing. No website links, though. Try DadofSam, though. I imagine that international law would be growing - that whole global economy thing. Just a guess.</p>

<p>Anyway - can you compromise? A science major would be 10 courses and, if you like it, would qualify you to sit for the patent bar. uspto.gov, if you want a website for information about that. Do that and your public policy studies (or history or economics or whatever you love - law school has no prerequisites besides a bachelor's degree and an LSAT score). </p>

<p>Medicine is a crummy profession to be in now. She's back in her generation - which is fine - but I wanted to do medicine forever (still do, in some ways), but had too many doctors warn me about it. Tuition at med schools alone is about $40,000/year, and then there are living expenses. Compound that over four years, then let the interest accrue during residencies, internships, etc - and it is not uncommon for people to start practicing with over a quarter-million in debt. Now for the fun part: HMOs. They keep cutting the reimbursement prices, so doctors have to see more patients and spend less time with each of them (many HMOs even dictate the amount of time you can spend with a patient). The HMO, not the doctor, will make the decision as to what kind of treatment the patient will get. Malpractice insurance premiums are through the roof - in some places, they are about a half-million per year. Without even accounting for inflation, doctor's salaries are declining every year. Oh, yeah, stable profession!</p>

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<p>tell your mother that its your life, thus you can do WHATEVER you want. she doesn't have tell you what to do, you're old enough and once again it's your life.</p>

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<p>PS. Don't take a hard major for med school preparation. Take one that allows you enough time and energy to ace organic chemistry. This whole "science major for med school" thing is a bad idea. You learn all the science you need to know there.</p>

<p>Also - beware about the same for law school - as GPA is one of the two most important things for admission.</p>

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<p>Wildflower: Thanks. Support is always welcome.</p>

<p>Grad'06: Lol I want to, but she is paying for the tuition. So I have to dilute my anger to some extent. Thanks for the advice though. I just hope it doesnt come to that.</p>

<p>Thanks ariesathena. I really would like to pursue Public Policy Studies with a concentration in US Foreign Policy. I was not considering it as a major merely to get into law school but strictly out of interest. I hopefully would like to pursue a career in international law, politics and international security policy. I don't really want to compromise, because I have no interest whatsoever anymore in the sciences. I feel that I cannot excel in a subject that I have no passion for.</p>

<p>I was actually considering it as a double major with Political Science. I thought about double majoring PubPoli with Economics, but I have no real interest in Econ really. Do you think Public Policy and Political Science is a suitable choice? Thank you all for your advice. It is really helpful.</p>

<p>Anymore advices anyone?</p>

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<p><em>whispers</em> don't let AriesAthena convince you to study Greek;). I am still fighting it.:D</p>

<p>wf</p>

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<p>:p to WildFlower.</p>

<p>Poli sci is a fine major for law school. Consider taking some foreign language (not sure where you are going, but you might want to take more than you are required to take for a core curriculum). WF's comment aside - don't take a dead language. ;) At most, a semester of Latin might help out for law school.</p>

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<p>Lol Wildflower. </p>

<p>Yeah ariesathena I hear a Latin background is actually useful in law school. I took a year of it during my senior year. Although, I most likely will continue Spanish or start French/Japanese. Then again, I hear proficiency in Arabic is highly sought after by government agencies. Though I believe they say French is the major language of diplomacy, and Japanese is very useful in international business. Hm.....so confused....</p>

<p>By the way, I am using you guys are in law school, what year are you in, and what do you think you willl likely pursue after law school?</p>

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<p>Latin is really only good for some basic vocabulary... beyond that, only leraning the structure of the language is helpful. For that, try Greek. ;)</p>

<p>Take whichever of those languages that you enjoy the most, that have the best professors, or the best reputation. If your school has a good study abroad programme in one of those, try taking that one (and yes, study abroad is fine for law school - and some schools encourage it). </p>

<p>I'm a rising second-year law student (2L) and considering patent law (engineering undergrad). </p>

<p>Now, for my final piece of advice: point out to your mom that it isn't good to have a science major for med school (bio majors have quite a low acceptance rate, fyi). As such, point out that you can major in anything, and, as GPA is all-important for med school admissions, that you should major in something that isn't science. Take the pre-meds (if you can stomach that) to satisfy her. In short, compromise on your major and subjects in undergrad. Aside from the handful of required pre-med courses, the pre-med & pre-law curricula are identical: get a really, really high GPA. So, in short, don't sweat law school v. med school now (although you certainly want to go to law school), as it shouldn't change how you approach the next few years. As I said, take the pre-meds to satisfy your mom (which you would need to take, in part, anyway, for your science distribution). </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>Majayiduke09,</p>

<p>OMG i totally understand where you're coming from. my parents find law to be a backup type career too... medicine and engineering are still mentioned around in random conversations even though i have no passion whatsoever to study them. </p>

<p>my parents are trying to convince me to a compromise: PATENT LAW. </p>

<p>yet, i don't want to study the sciences. i want to study poli sci and international relations and globalization, not science. </p>

<p>ariesathena or wildflower,</p>

<p>how can i convince my parents that there's other good law professions out there besides patent law? they think if i don't go into patent law, then i'll be poor because none of the other law specializations have good career prospects and don't show high demand in the future. </p>

<p>i am also wondering the same thing Majayiduke09 is: what are the growing fields in law?</p>

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<p>I share your mother's opinion (and my mother's back in the day) that medicine offers more respect, and better job security than law. But I agree that those factors offer poor compensation for entering a field for which you have no passion.</p>

<p>Different fields of law grow hotter and colder over time; predicting what will be hot in seven or eight years is difficult, but not particularly necessary. That said, the demand for patent lawyers usually remains pretty high year in and year out. </p>

<p>That doesn't mean you should necessarily become a patent lawyer. If you're not drawn tothe work, you'll have some of the issues you'd have if you dutifully headed off to medical school.</p>

<p>Passions do change over time, however. Science held little interest for me when I was yor age, and a great deal interest for me now.</p>

<p>You might find that the way science is taught in college arouses your passion.</p>

<p>Take a variety of courses your freshman year. You don't have to decide on a major yet; I changed my mind about my major three or four times my freshman year.</p>

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<p>Hey kfc4u!!! Nice to hear that someone is in the same predicament as I am. What can I say "misery loves company" :). Anyway, we have the same majors/interests (polisci, international relations, globalization) in mind for college. My overall goal is politics after spending years working on US Foreign Policy. Basically, I want to work with government agencies for a while. They're always looking to hire, correct?</p>

<p>Anyway so far, I have heard that International Law and Patent Law (of no interest to me either) are one the rise. I am going to do some more research on growing fields in law. If I find anything striking, I will send you a PM. </p>

<p>Oh yeah are you going to college next fall? If so, where?</p>

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<p>Your Mom sounds like my (late) Mom.</p>

<p>I don't have any advice about the field of law. I do have advice about your Mom. </p>

<p>IMO you cannot convince your Mom of something that she is unwilling to believe. No matter what data or arguments or authority you cite, she either will refuse to accept it or will make unconvincing objections. </p>

<p>IMO you cannot convince your Mom of something that she does not want to believe. (repeat for emphasis :) )</p>

<p>IMO you should TELL your Mom "I am doing X because of Y." Period. It is good of you to explain things to your Mom. BUT SHE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE CONVINCED. This is YOUR life and YOUR reasons. If YOU don't need data about growing fields of law to make a decision, then don't get the data in an effort to convince HER. Convincing her is unnecessary and beyond your power.</p>

<p>Be strong.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice Greybeard and ADad. </p>

<p>"My overall goal is politics after spending years working on US Foreign Policy. Basically, I want to work with government agencies for a while. They're always looking to hire, correct?"</p>

<p>i was thinking of working in the state department too or with the UN or something similar. two things though... 1) you can take a much easier path into such jobs without having to go through the pressures of law school... and 2) those are highly unfavorable jobs in the eyes of my parents because of low pay, traveling away from home/unable to establish a family, possiblities of hardship missions, etc. in comparison, they'd rather have me be a lawyer and earn money lol. funny how you say they always hire, because my parents say that the job market for that is small, and i remember a state department recruiter saying that it's really competitive to get in. i did some research for the UN... similar, both have competitive entrance exams. </p>

<p>i do have some interest in international law... perhaps a compromise between law and international relations. but i've heard international law is basically business based. hasn't exactly made me excited yet. and on the other CC thread, ALMOST NO ONE can answer the questions on international law!!!! </p>

<p>majayiduke09, i'm already a freshman at UCLA. i already know my interests are more in poli sci/IR/globalization, because i havent fallen asleep in those classes, but i've constantly fallen asleep in my biotech and space weather classes. haha.</p>

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<p>ADad: Thank you for the advice. I really am at the point where I honestly don't care how she reacts. It's more of like "I will be doing law not medicine. Deal with it." Lol I purposely play law admissions videos and lectures from law schools on my computer just to emphasize the fact that I will NOT be pursuing medicine. Your input is greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>kfc4u: Yeah law is not a necessity for those type of jobs, but I do enjoy so many aspects of law, and I do believe it will be an advantage--possibly--in those type of positions. I suppose I may have to work in a private law firm for some years paying of my inevitable debt. Unless, I enjoy life at the law firm, I eventually see a transition into security policy and politics. Hopefully, I will not be consumed by the love of money....Actually, yes, you are correct, entrance into the State Department and UN are incredibly competitive. I hear a plus is proficiency in Arabic for jobs in US government agencies and departments. Hmm....</p>

<p>I am not sure if I intend to go straight to law school after Duke. Possibly work in some public policy aspect of US Foreign Policy hopefully, then attend law school....I'm thinking way too ahead lol....I really should slow down and just enjoy college....</p>

<p>Anyway, Good luck at UCLA :) Be strong!!!!</p>

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<p>Guys,</p>

<p>The advice given here has been good, however, I also want to remind you that in spite of conflicts of opinion/interest and disagreements, well, your mom is -and will always be- your mom -and most of the times, she just want you to have the best lifestyle/career you possibly can. So, please be tactful, and even grateful, for her interest in your future. Best of Luck!</p>

<p>wf</p>

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<p>One other point before this thread peters to an end: specializing as a lawyer isn't quite the same thing as specializing as a physician. Psychiatrists, neurologists, obstetricians, ophthamologists, neurologists, plastic surgeons, and endocrynologists have extremely specialized practices. The percentage of lawyers whose practices are that specialized is much lower. It takes three of four years to become board-certified in one of the specialities I've mentioned. The California bar certifies specialists in a few practice areas, but the credential is far less meaningful than a board certification is for physicians, and few atorneys bother with it. It's not unusual for lawyers to see their practices evolve over time. A skilled attorney who works in a big city law firm (where lawyers are the most likely to specialize) is far more likely to handle a greater variety of cases than a skilled surgeon working in the same city. </p>

<p>In my first year of practice, I handled a bankruptcy, divorces, criminal cases, immigration matters, personal injury cases, and drafted partnership agreements, conducted an arbitration, and wrote a few wills. (I worked in a big city, but for a small firm that served a community of people who spoke little English.)</p>

<p>That sort of breadth of law practice is more typical for lawyers in more sparcely populated areas. It's unheard of in medicine, except perhaps in really remote areas. </p>

<p>Later on, I began to concentrate on personal injury and landlord tenant litigation. Twelve years into my practice, I started working in-house for corporations, and spent several years drafting complex intellectual property licensing agreements. In the last few months, I've taken on a new role in the company I work for, handling legal affairs for all of our Asian operations. </p>

<p>I may have experienced an unusual degree of novelty in my practice for a lawyer, but you'd be very hard pressed to find a physician who has practiced in such a variety of areas. Sure, the bankruptcy code is complex, but it can't hold a candle to the central nervous system.</p>

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<p>ariesathena: I really like your advice. I think it's very wise that you suggest a compromise, not the usual stick-it-to-the-rents business. What is a few courses to take, after all?</p>

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<p>Thanks Eric. :)</p>